Author Archive
My latest University Business column is now available in the February issue as well as online: " Responsive Web Design in Higher Education: One Design to Rule Them All?" In this column, I make the case for Responsive Web Design in higher ed by sharing some data, examples and tips from early adopters (even the father of RWD himself, Ethan Marcotte). If you need to convince your boss to give you some time to work on RWD (or even maybe to sign you up for the 4-week online course on RWD for higher ed taught by Stewart Foss through my professional development...
Read MoreUPDATED on Jan 27, UWGB and other institutions got their official pages back, for details, check the bottom of this post. After reading Todd Sanders' blog post on how the official UWGB Facebook page was hijacked by Facebook (basically by switching the institutional page with the "community-generated" FB page), I asked Wednesday morning on Twitter and Facebook if anybody else in higher education had noticed any change. Twitter / @karinejoly: Facebook has stolen offici ... And, it looks like a few other institutions are in the same boat including Ithaca College, Monroe CC, Radford University, etc. Check yours and let us know if your...
Read MoreYou might not know it, but I maintain a Google calendar of higher ed events and conferences where I keep track of anything interesting for web and marketing teams working in universities and colleges. It's a useful tool, but here's a selection (in chronological order) of the most interesting events with deadlines for registration, call for proposals and other interesting information like registration fees. Web Redesign Bootcamp -3-Webinar Series - February 7-9, 2012 What you need to know to get ready for your next web redesign This webinar series will feature 4 great higher ed web redesign experts: Stewart Foss (eduStyle), Mike Richwalsky (JCU),...
Read MoreWebsite redesigns are a fact of life in higher education. And, that's why our yearly Web Redesign Boot Camp webinar series (Feb 7-9, 2012) is always very well-attended as it provides practical tips and useful advice for web redesign projects in higher education as well as a good overview of the latest trends in our field. Another great way to keep an eye on the state of web design in higher education is to follow EDU Checkup, Nick DeNardis' video blog. Every week or so, Nick selects a higher ed website, reviews and grades it. He has done it since October 2008...
Read MoreFacebook finally rolled out its new profile format, Timeline, to all users before the holiday break. Beyond sharing in a timeline format all you ever did on Facebook (that is if you don't edit your privacy settings), your new Facebook user profile has now a reserved space for a Cover Photo, the equivalence of the big banner image that is so popular on higher ed homepages - and other websites or blogs. Some Facebook users have already come up with some VERY creative (or just plain fun like the one Todd Sanders, aka @tsand, from UWGB used on his profile as shown...
Read MoreSince the first edition of my survey about the State of the Mobile Web in higher education last year, more research about the topic has been conducted by vendors (Inigral & Stamats), organizations (Educause) and the Mobile evangelist in our industry, Dave Olsen. As you probably know if you are a regular reader of this blog, I always try to run my surveys on a yearly basis as I'm interested in measuring how trends evolve in higher education. That's the main reason for this 2nd edition of the survey about the State of the Mobile Web in Higher Ed. Whether or not...
Read MoreI've already said (and written) it many times: one of the things I love the most in higher education is the fact that we can (and have the duty to) learn all the time. No matter how the learning happens, it is always nurtured, welcomed and valued in our small community (and, I know, it makes sense as we are in the business of educating others whether we actually teach or not). Since I started to work in higher education (wow, it's going to be 10 years in a few months), I've learned a great deal of things, skills and lessons. Beyond...
Read MoreI love holidays cards - and by looking at the recent web traffic on my Holidays Cards post from last year, I'm probably not the only one in the higher ed community. Earlier this week, I asked the readers of my weekly newsletter (not a subscriber yet?) if they could send my way links to their 2011 holidays video cards (video is a great medium for this genre as it can convey emotions so well). I also got some suggestions via Twitter. After reviewing all of them (while eating some well-deserved chocolate), here's the selection of my favorites 2011 holidays videos (in...
Read MoreAs I explained in the first post on this series about responsive web design in higher education, I interviewed a few early adopters of the responsive web design approach as part of my research for an upcoming column in University Business. After Stewart Foss, eduStyle Awards founder and the instructor of the 4-week online course on responsive web design for higher education, here's the interview I conducted with Erik Runyon, Manager of Interactive Development at AgencyND, the inside agency of the University of Notre Dame. His institution launched its redesigned responsive homepage in July 2011, a redesign that got the...
Read MoreFollowing in the footsteps of Tuft University that started to accept videos in place of traditional essays last year, the University of Dayton has decided to offer to its prospective students the opportunity to make an "audiovisual" impression as part of their college application and... get a chance to win a $40,000 scholarship over 4 years at the same time. This scholarship contest, embedded in the college application process, is an original twist on recent social media campaigns conducted by different institutions. Video contests are not new in higher education, but what's different this time is the fact that the winning...
Read MoreI've just completed my article about responsive design in higher education. It will be published in University Business in a couple of months (February 2012 issue). I did a few extensive interviews with early adopters as part of my research for this piece. As usual, I could only use a fraction of what I found. I only had 1400 words. But, thanks to the Web, I can make sure you get to see the rest of what these early adopters in higher education had to say about responsive web design (RWD) - and long before the article is published! So, let's...
Read MoreMy latest University Business column is now available in the November/December issue as well as online: "Time to Get Strategic With Content" In this column, I explain why content strategy is worth the time and how to get started. I also share a few examples of content strategy in action in universities and colleges - including the comprehensive multi-channel content strategy currently in process at Indiana University of Pennsylvannia. If you want to learn about this specific example, you can read the interview I did with Michael Powers about this initiative. You should also know that Mike will present a full...
Read MoreAccording to the study conducted by Archrival on 24 US campuses (n=500 with a +/-4.25% margin of error), three quarters of current students won't probably bother scanning your QR codes (thanks to 2code for the tip). While the majority knows what QR codes are, only 21% managed to scan the one used for this research. So, technology could be the culprit. Anyway, the main results of this study are summarized in the following infographics. Do you use QR codes on your campus? Any traffic data to share with us? Please post a comment if you do.
If iPads are on the holiday gift lists of many, the tablet itself is definitely the mind of more and more print magazine editors in higher education. After online versions, social media channels and mobile versions, iPad applications (or should I say solutions) have become the next thing to get for people in charge of institutional or alum magazines. While the Responsive Web Design approach I mentioned earlier might be the cross-device silver bullet for all the digital versions of magazines as well, I recently came across an easy-to-use and not prohibitvely expensive solution to get the sought-after iPad app for the...
Read MoreHow do you like your site? Web? Mobile? How about Responsive? As my cutting-edge technically-oriented readers already know (but I love you the same even if you don't yet ;0), Responsive Web Design wasn't exactly born yesterday. The term was coined in an article written by Ethan Marcotte and published in May 2010 on A List Apart. While Marcotte, the de-facto Founding Father of the Responsive Web Design approach (and its biggest evangelist), has already written a book about it, RWD still doesn't have an article of its own in Wikipedia where the only reference I found about it was this very...
Read MoreIn our industry mobile is the new black, right? More seriously, as you know, it is the future of web browsing - and thus, it would be plain stupid to ignore it. So, if you don't have a mobile solution yet, chances are you are currently working on it or planning it. According to the survey on the state of the mobile web in higher education I conducted in February 2011, 37% already had a mobile solution while 57% planned to implement a solution within the next 12 months. I'm always happy to feature the work of others on this blog,...
Read MoreDid you get a chance to check out UF new homepage yet (scroll down for the screenshots)? It launched at the beginning of this week as announced in the news story published last week by the university. According to the story, this isn't a web redesign per se as the project only covered the visual aspect of the web presence: "The new “skin” maintains all links previously found on the UF homepage and reflects the design UF&Shands originated for its Web presence, which is currently in transition." Reskinning a website before a redesign? That's kind of a novel (strange?) approach. I sent a few questions...
Read MoreIn higher ed, content strategy is starting to get some serious attention at conferences, on blogs or Twitter. While theoretical advice abounds, it's still tough to find higher ed professionals or executives who have been given the latitude to work on a comprehensive content strategy at the institutional level. Tough, but not impossible.
Unless you've been on a deserted island or maybe in a very long meeting this morning (and the past week), you know that some very lucky 500+ higher ed web professionals are having a blast in Austin at the High Ed Web Conference (hey, you might even be one of them :). This year the conference fairy didn't let me go (even though I had a blast last year in Cincinnati, OH). Instead she sent my wallet which is definitely having fun in Austin as my professional development company, Higher Ed Experts, is sponsoring this year again the opening keynote of...
Read MoreI've done a fair amount of talking (and writing) about web analytics in higher ed since I first decided to start the higher ed analytics revolution last year. And, it's fair to say that the bar of web analytics in universities and colleges has been raised with the contributions of several great higher ed professionals (Shelley Thayer, Seth Meranda and many more including great tips from Avinash Kaushik). While all this talk about web analytics had an impact on the general state of web and social media analytics in higher education, many of you also told me that they needed to...
Read MoreOne of the biggest events of the year for higher ed web professionals, the High Ed Web Conference, is just 10 days away. And, I'm so sad I won't be able to make it this year. At least I'll be with the lucky heweb11 attendees in spirit. You should be able to spot the logo of my professional development business, Higher Ed Experts, in Austin as we are supporting, this year again, this great conference. Since Higher Ed Experts is all about YOUR professional development, we chose to be the sponsor of the opening keynote at the conference, a keynote presented by...
Read MoreYesterday I got a peek at what Colleen Jones, author of "Clout: the Art and Science of Influential Web Content," will talk about in her master class next week - on Oct 5, 2011 - on Influential Web Content Strategy for Higher Ed and this got me thinking about ways to make the dreaded online course catalog more influential and engaging. As Mike Fienen wrote about a year ago, good online catalogs are the white unicorns of higher ed web teams. Everybody is looking for them, a few think they might have spotted one, but nobody really petted one. Yet, course catalogs...
Read MoreThis week the University of Minnesota is inaugurating its new president: Eric Kaler and has decided to make this inauguration more... social. All week long, 16 social media students ambassadors will run his Twitter offical account, @PrezKaler. Watch this short video to see what some of these students planned to do with the President's Twitter Account: They started to follow President Kaler yesterday and posted updates and photos on Twitter. This is a novel approach that does present some risks, so I asked Elizabeth Giorgi, Social & Multimedia coordinator at the University of Minnesota a few questions about it. 1) Why did you...
Read MoreFACT: Web redesign projects don't have to mean a hefty budget after 18 months of committee meetings. Last Spring I wrote about Juniata College's 1-month no-committee redesign and that post got a lot of attention. So, when Amy Filardo, Director of Web Communications at Loyola University Maryland, emailed me, a few weeks ago, about the in-house website redesign her small team completed over the summer, I was eager to learn more on this agile approach to web redesigns. First, let's have a quick look at the Before and After screenshots: BEFORE AFTER Amy Filardo, Director of Web Communications at Loyola was kind enough to...
Read MoreHave you heard about Colleen Jones yet? Hopefully you have as she might have the key to web, mobile and social media content woes in higher ed. Colleen Jones wrote the best book I've read so far this year: "Clout, The Art and Science of Influential Web Content." I read and reviewed her book back in February as I was looking for a good textbook for the graduate course on social media marketing I designed and authored for Southern New Hampshire University. I ended up selecting "Clout" along with Jim Sterne's book: "Social Media Metrics". Since then, I've recommended Colleen's book...
Read MoreMy latest University Business column is now available in the September issue as well as online (on the new UB website powered by Drupal!): "Web Accessibility: Required, Not Optional" In this column, I explain why you should focus on web accessibility ASAP. Not just because it's the right thing to do for your users with a disability (even if it is, obviously), but because it's the law. And, the lawyer of the National Federation of the Blind, Daniel Goldstein, has made clear he is on a mission to make things change for the better in higher education - even if...
Read MoreLast week Kyle James reminded us that the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachussets Dartmouth had just published the results of its latest study on social media use in higher ed. With 456 interviews performed from November 2010 to May 2011 among a representative sample of 4-year institutions in the US, the findings of this study are valid within a +/- 4% range. While they confirm some widely-shared assumptions on the state of social media in higher education, these results also reveal some surprising trends. According to this study, 100% of colleges and universities now use some form of...
Read MoreExactly 3 months ago I launched the 2nd survey on the State of Web and Social Media Analytics in Higher Education. The idea behind this survey was to take the pulse of the online analytics practice in universities and colleges. More than 350 professionals completed this survey in May. And, today, I'm happy to share some of the high-level results through this infographic I created with the help of Stewart Foss from eduStyle who did a fantastic job with its design. As I wrote on this blog a few months ago, I really believe infographics are a great vehicule to share...
Read MoreI've tweeted on several occasion about Betsy Soler's YouTube videos. Betsy is the community manager in charge of social media at FIU and she hosts this video series. These weekly videos offer a review of FIU latest news and feature comments from students and other members of the community, comments posted during the week on other social media platforms. Haven't watched one of these yet? Do it now! While the videos are well-produced, fun and engaging, I really love the fact that they fully integrate (in a meaningful and smart way) all the different pieces of the FIU social media puzzle. This...
Read MoreI don't know about you, but I miss live blogging during conference season. Tweets are great, don't get me wrong, but let's say they are not always optimal to get the gist of a conference presentation you can't attend (that is unless somebody Storify those tweets). Last month, Rob Engelsman won one of the Higher Ed Experts scholarships to help him attend the High Ed Web Regional Conference in Rochester, NY. When I learn that Rob was the Multimedia Content Coordinator at Ithaca College but also a blogger , I asked him if he could write a guest post about one...
Read MoreLast month I announced the introduction of 5 scholarships supported by Higher Ed Experts to help members of the higher ed web community attend 2 different High Ed Web Regional Conferences this summer: HEWeb Rochester and HEWeb Arkansas. This was tough to choose and I really want to thank all the people who took the time to submit an entry. The winners were selected based mainly on their situation (I tried to give a chance to professionals newer in our field) and some for their originality. After reviewing the essays (well, comments) of all the participants, I'm happy to announce the names...
Read MoreMy latest University Business column is now available in the June issue as well as online: "Analytics: The Holy Grail of Social Media? A year of growth for measuring social media activity" In this column, I take a look at how some institutions use web analytics to inform their website redesign projects and share 3 great social media measurement success stories from Marquette University, Gettysburg College and Harper College. I'll post more examples soon as several interesting case studies could not fit in the column. While many in higher ed still think it's impossible to measure the ROI of social media intiatives, my...
Read MoreAfter the 2 scholarships sponsored by Higher Ed Experts for the High Ed Web Arkansas Conference last week (you can still participate in this little contest if you're interested), I'm happy to announce 3 scholarships for the High Ed Web Rochester Regional Conference to be held on June 27, 2011 at Monroe Community College in Rochester, NY. Since this is a 1-day conference, the 3 scholarships, worth $150 each and sponsored by Higher Ed Experts, will cover the conference fee as well as some of your travel expenses (depending on where you are :-). Co-chaired by Colleen Brennan-Barry from Monroe Community College...
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